Is Clark Gillies underrated?

Hot Water Bottle

Registered User
Aug 26, 2010
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He's only EVER brought up in a negative way because of people complaining about him being in the hall of fame. But he always seemed to be a superb player and possibly the best of the Cam Neely / Wendel Clark power forwards (Don Cherry's dream) - lots of intangibles, great fighter, puts up points, fan favorite, good old Canadian boy (ha ha). Am I missing something or is he severely underrated?
 

BigBadBruins7708

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Dec 11, 2017
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- career totals of only 319-378-697 over 14 seasons (0.76ppg in the highest scoring era ever)
- 4 Cups, no Smythe
- no individual awards
- no nominations
- only 1x top 10 in points
- never top 10 in goals/assists
- jekyll and hyde career...very good 76-82 and god awful 83-88

overall, a very good player that never was elite at any 1 thing...definition of HHOVG

realistically, Gillies is no more a HOF'er than Claude Lemieux...and at least Claude has a Smythe
 
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BraveCanadian

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Jun 30, 2010
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On this board if you have high value as a player but don’t have the numbers, you are underrated.

I don’t know that he should be in the hall but Gillies was a unique player at the time.
 

Hot Water Bottle

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Aug 26, 2010
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To be clear I wasn't arguing that he should or shouldn't be in the HOF. I was trying to say that he's under-rated as a player because of people's gripes about him being in the HOF.
 

brachyrynchos

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Apr 10, 2017
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I don't think he's underrated for what he was, Gillies' name is pretty much mentioned in top power forwards and fighter discussions. I don't know why his numbers declined mid to late '80's...maybe wear and tear and age, And while his best years were during the dynasty, Gillies had put up decent numbers prior to Bossy's arrival, playing on the LILCO line, (named after our electric company here, Long Island Lighting Co.) with Trottier and Billy Harris.
Gillies was also a very good hitter, in baseball. Played 3 seasons with the Houston Aeros minor league club, and finished with a 2.41 batting average).
 
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sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
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On this board if you have high value as a player but don’t have the numbers, you are underrated.

I don’t know that he should be in the hall but Gillies was a unique player at the time.

Willi Plett with better linemates? ;)
 

tony d

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Jun 23, 2007
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To me he had a good career and played a great role on those Islanders teams of the 80's. I don't think he should be in the Hall of Fame though.
 

Tarantula

Hanging around the web
Aug 31, 2017
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I think Gilles has been under appreciated over the years, perhaps not unlike Bossy and the Isles in general IMO. Granted to get to Gilles name there a were a few above him on those teams but he was a pretty big part of those teams. I feel the Isles get passed by occasionally since they were sandwiched in between the high flying Habs and Oilers.
 

saintunspecified

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Nov 30, 2017
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overall, a very good player that never was elite at any 1 thing...definition of HHOVG

I grew up in Dix Hills, where the Gillies lived at the time and still live. Here's the thing: Everyone loved the Gillies. That was his elite skill. And trust me, there were a few players on that team who were real SOBs off the ice. They needed him.
 

AZviaNJ

Setbacks, no Defeats
Mar 31, 2011
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I don't think he's underrated for what he was, Gillies' name is pretty much mentioned in top power forwards and fighter discussions. I don't know why his numbers declined mid to late '80's...maybe wear and tear and age, And while his best years were during the dynasty, Gillies had put up decent numbers prior to Bossy's arrival, playing on the LILCO line, (named after our electric company here, Long Island Lighting Co.) with Trottier and Billy Harris.
Gillies was also a very good hitter, in baseball. Played 3 seasons with the Houston Aeros minor league club, and finished with a 2.41 batting average).
Those 19 straight playoff series wins took it out of everyone; Trottier, Bossy, Potvin and especially Gillies who never had more than 32 points once he it 29 years old. He was a premier power forward at a time when the NHL was at it's most physical.

He and Nystrom were the heart of souls of those teams.....leaders on and off the ice. He's a HOFer in my eyes.
 

AZviaNJ

Setbacks, no Defeats
Mar 31, 2011
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To be clear I wasn't arguing that he should or shouldn't be in the HOF. I was trying to say that he's under-rated as a player because of people's gripes about him being in the HOF.
I don't think he was underrated, nor do I feel he was overrated.

Bryan Trottier was the underrated player on that team.....he was the best Islander and one of the best 10 hockey players I've ever seen in my 50 years of watching. Trotts was a great great player.
 

Newsworthy

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Jan 28, 2018
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To be clear I wasn't arguing that he should or shouldn't be in the HOF. I was trying to say that he's under-rated as a player because of people's gripes about him being in the HOF.
You nailed it. Great player. Not sure if he deserves to be in the HOF. Any team would absolutely love this type of player in any era on your team. These are the type of players who do the dirty work and do whatever it takes to win the Stanley Cup.
 
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VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
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A marginal HHOF candidate, whichever side of the line you argue for.

Sounds about right.
 

reckoning

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Jan 4, 2005
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If you watch the final game from the '81 Canada Cup, Gillies is clearly Canada's most effective player in that game. He was also considered to be Team NHL's best player in the '79 Challenge Cup. I guess it's bad luck for him that those games were humiliating defeats for Canada. But I wonder if something specific about his style of play was geared for international play. Maybe his penchant for playing physical, but not crossing the line into taking unnecessary penalties.

Gillies was the Islanders captain in the late-70s, before Potvin took over the role for the 80s and the start of the dynasty. It's been said that Gillies was considered far too nice a guy to be an effective captain.
 

Staniowski

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Jan 13, 2018
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Gillies was the Islanders captain in the late-70s, before Potvin took over the role for the 80s and the start of the dynasty. It's been said that Gillies was considered far too nice a guy to be an effective captain.
Yeah, my understanding is that being captain really didn't jive with his personality, and he gave it up because he found it too stressful. Is that basically what happened?

Do you know if Potvin was voted to be captain by his teammates, or did Arbour appoint him? Apparently Potvin was not well-liked by his teammates during most of the early years of his career. But, he eventually changed his ways somewhat and was better liked in the 2nd half of his career.

If you watch the final game from the '81 Canada Cup, Gillies is clearly Canada's most effective player in that game. He was also considered to be Team NHL's best player in the '79 Challenge Cup.
I agree that Gillies was a good player. However, when you look at his performances in the 1979 Challenge Cup and the 1981 Canada Cup, and look at the tournament MVP performance of John Tonelli in the 1984 Canada Cup, and consider the seasons in which Trottier, Gillies, Tonelli, and Brent Sutter all had what are considered their very best seasons, there is a common denominator here (or rather a common linemate). That common linemate made every player he ever played with, better.
 

JackSlater

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Apr 27, 2010
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He's probably underrated in that a lot of people talk about him like he was a bum that was carried by Trottier and Bossy. Shouldn't be in the HHOF but he was a very good player who provided his team with what it needed.
 
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Iron Mike Sharpe

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Dec 6, 2017
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That entire Dynasty Squad is criminally underrated. Here, I took a crack at ranking the Top 20 Islanders 79-80 to 82-83, just so you get a picture of how good they were by placing them in context:

1. Denis Potvin
2. Bryan Trottier
3. Mike Bossy
4. Billy Smith
5. John Tonelli
6. Butch Goring
7. Clark Gillies
8. Ken Morrow
9. Bob Bourne
10. Stefan Persson
11. Anders Kallur
12. Dave Langevin
13. Bob Nystrom
14. Rollie Melanson
15. Duane Sutter
16. Tomas Jonsson
17. Brent Sutter
18. Wayne Merrick
19. Gord Lane
20. Bob Lorimer
 
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Iron Mike Sharpe

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Dec 6, 2017
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Langevin and Kallur over Nystrom? Ouch.

You rank 'em, smart ass. Kallur was one of the best penalty killers in the league. We can nitpick placement all we want, the point was to illustrate how strong and deep the team was. I'm sure there are others who would put Gillies over Tonelli & Goring, but a lot of these guys were close in talent.
 

sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
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You rank 'em, smart ass. Kallur was one of the best penalty killers in the league. We can nitpick placement all we want, the point was to illustrate how strong and deep the team was. I'm sure there are others who would put Gillies over Tonelli & Goring, but a lot of these guys were close in talent.

I wasn't trying to be a smart ass, I just recently read Bryan Trottier's players tribune thing and the way he spoke about Nystrom made it sound like he was a driving force/spirit or something.

Letter to My Younger Self | By Bryan Trottier
Those Islanders teams will embody that spirit. On nights when you’re all playing like dogs and nothing is going right, Bob Nystrom will say, “I’m gonna go out there and drive to the net 20 times until I deflect a puck. And I’m gonna take 20 minutes in penalties and drive the other team nuts.”
 
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AZviaNJ

Setbacks, no Defeats
Mar 31, 2011
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That entire Dynasty Squad is criminally underrated. Here, I took a crack at ranking the Top 20 Islanders 79-80 to 82-83, just so you get a picture of how good they were by placing them in context:

1. Denis Potvin
2. Bryan Trottier
3. Mike Bossy
4. Billy Smith
5. John Tonelli
6. Butch Goring
7. Clark Gillies
8. Ken Morrow
9. Bob Bourne
10. Stefan Persson
11. Anders Kallur
12. Dave Langevin
13. Bob Nystrom
14. Rollie Melanson
15. Duane Sutter
16. Tomas Jonsson
17. Brent Sutter
18. Wayne Merrick
19. Gord Lane
20. Bob Lorimer
Great list and good on you for ranking Tonelli so high...he was Mr Playoffs, especially late 3rd period and OT.

I'd probably flip Bourne and Nystrom, flip the Sutter's, and given the timeframe referenced, I'd drop Potvin to 10th and move the others up...Denis was great during the 70's, but wasn't the same player, especially defensively during the playoff run. All-in-all, great list.
 
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brachyrynchos

Registered User
Apr 10, 2017
1,472
997
That entire Dynasty Squad is criminally underrated. Here, I took a crack at ranking the Top 20 Islanders 79-80 to 82-83, just so you get a picture of how good they were by placing them in context:

1. Denis Potvin
2. Bryan Trottier
3. Mike Bossy
4. Billy Smith
5. John Tonelli
6. Butch Goring
7. Clark Gillies
8. Ken Morrow
9. Bob Bourne
10. Stefan Persson
11. Anders Kallur
12. Dave Langevin
13. Bob Nystrom
14. Rollie Melanson
15. Duane Sutter
16. Tomas Jonsson
17. Brent Sutter
18. Wayne Merrick
19. Gord Lane
20. Bob Lorimer
Good to see Bourne in your top 10, he doesn't get enough acknowledgement during those dynasty years.
 
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Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
31,703
4,144
The thing is, I liked Gillies. Always have. I wish the modern Leafs would have him on their team, they need him. Everyone needed a player like him. He fit in everywhere, at any time in NHL history. Here was a guy who gave Dave Schultz a licking in his rookie year and as fierce of a fighter as he was he never had 100 PIM in a season. He was smart.

He's a bit like someone like Lucic today. Like Lucic or not, the amount of games McDavid has missed are non-existent since he arrived. Gillies was that same sort of player. He protected Bossy. Bossy got hurt because of wear and tear and taking the ultimate sacrifice it took to score goals, not because of cheap shots. Gillies wouldn't have allowed it.

The problem with Gillies is that since he got inducted into the HHOF we've overlooked these things. I never thought of him as an "elite" player but more or less a very good and serviceable player. I wouldn't call him "great". This sort of gives the impression that he is overrated because he is in the HHOF. I don't know if he is, I just know that on these boards you can't mention his name without discussing the HHOF induction and I wish that weren't the case.
 

FerrisRox

"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Sep 17, 2003
20,264
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He's only EVER brought up in a negative way because of people complaining about him being in the hall of fame. But he always seemed to be a superb player and possibly the best of the Cam Neely / Wendel Clark power forwards (Don Cherry's dream) - lots of intangibles, great fighter, puts up points, fan favorite, good old Canadian boy (ha ha). Am I missing something or is he severely underrated?

If anything, he is overrated.
 

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,584
15,946
The problem with Gillies is that since he got inducted into the HHOF we've overlooked these things. I never thought of him as an "elite" player but more or less a very good and serviceable player. I wouldn't call him "great". This sort of gives the impression that he is overrated because he is in the HHOF. I don't know if he is, I just know that on these boards you can't mention his name without discussing the HHOF induction and I wish that weren't the case.

so true. we totally romanticize non-scorers just below the HHOF bar, but piss all over those just above it. when he got inducted he immediately went from living legend to terrible fraud.

like, imagine if tikkanen were to shockingly get inducted this year. it would be the same for him. he would go from (rightfully) being remembered as a star-level role player and totally original and unique player to being called a shotgun rider and a product of his superstar linemates.

i don't think gillies ever puts on his fist full of cup rings with his HHOF ring on the thumb and worries about what some weirdos on the internet are typing about him though.
 

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